For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.
Deuteronomy 2:7
Moses talked about the wilderness wanderings as a real spiritual experience of great positive impact... why? The reason he could do so has to do with the audience to whom he is recounting this history. This is the generation that will enter Canaan. The grumbling, faithless Egyptian slave generation have all died in the desert. This new generation, the children of slavery, has grown up in the wilderness. They understood God's provision and leadership in the desert sands. It defined their relationship with God.
In many ways God will use the difficult circumstances of our lives to shape us into a people of faith. That is what I know about God. I appreciate that God saw fit to save me, save my parents when I was very young, and provide me solid church and schooling experiences. My share of desert difficulty came in my teen years, and later in young adulthood. God is sovereign and His purposes prevailed! For through it all, I believe God shaped me for the unique ministry of working with hurting or confused people, some of them casualties of Christian snipers... my own experience at times.
In the desert, Israel lacked nothing. The nation had all she needed in a sovereign, loving, and caring God. The same is true for me. My deserts have been moments where God has become the dearest thing to me. In the desert I have lacked nothing, because the Lord my God has been with me.
- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.
3 comments:
"...casualties of Christian snipers"
hope you expand on that.
I agree Franck. I have been on the wrong end of Christian snipers. I never am sure how to deal with them or the damage they have done. Lot of time that should have been for growing and learning had to be spent going back to figure out who/what happended. Disappointing and a much more cautious walk forward now. So glad God is in control and aware.
Franck,
Christians do not always treat each other the way they should. The remnants of fallen sin in us often make us vengeful and childish with one another. Christian snipers will shoot you down, sometimes with some sort of "biblical" or personal justification. Been there myself. It is part of the price of leadership to take fire. It is hard to take from the church, but I see it as being a society of people who are being redeemed, so some problems will occur. It hurts. But it is redeemed by God's grace, confession, forgiveness, and mercy.
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